Chief Mbazulike Amechi,
popularly known as ‘The boy is good’ was a first republic
parliamentarian and first post Independence Minister of Aviation. He was
a strong member of the defunct Zikist Movement and since the first
bloody military coup on January 1966, which sacked the politicians,
Amechi has been living in his community, Ukpor in Nnewi South local
government area. He spoke on his experience:
By Vincent Ujumadu
 |
| Amaechi Mbazulike |
ON the coup: On January 15, 1966,
themy struck and turned the weapons which we issued to them to defend
the country, on the government and the leaders that issued the weapons
to them. In the process, they killed the Prime minister of the country;
they killed the premier of the West; they killed the premier of the
North. They were about to kill the premier of the East but what saved Dr
Michael Okpara was that Archbishop Macarious, the president of Cyprus,
was his guest that night and probably they wouldn’t want war between
Cyprus and Nigeria.
On the other hand they could not kill Chief Dennis Osadebey because
there was no Army in Benin at the time of the coup and so Osadebey
managed to escape. They also killed Chief Festus Okotie-Eboh, the
Federal Minister of Finance. They also killed some members of their own
group. For example, Brigadier Maimalari was innocently killed. My close
friend, Colonel Arthur Unegbe was also killed. He was in charge of the
Armoury and because he was reluctant to release the Armoury to them,
they shot and killed him in his house. Since then, Nigeria has never
been the same and Nigeria has never attained anything near the dreams of
the founding fathers and nationalists and fought for independence of
the nation.
Many people had the impression that the coup was tribal in nature in view of the way casualties were recorded.
